


Anyone’s Ghost

by oscarwildechilde



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Estranged Siblings, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 05:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17995445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oscarwildechilde/pseuds/oscarwildechilde
Summary: Five is gone, Klaus and Vanya share a rare moment





	Anyone’s Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from “Anyone’s Ghost” by the National
> 
> Give Klaus and his sisters more scenes together you cowards!

Vanya stood at the threshold of Klaus’ room like a ghost, half behind the doorframe as if she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to exist. She was never sure if any of her siblings would be in a good mood and let her into their world or a bad one and scream at her or roll their eyes. Klaus was drunk. He was probably high, too. None of them had really noticed him slowly get worse and worse until it had come to the point where seeing him sober was a rare thing. He was slumped on the ground, drawing on the baseboard behind his bed absently, his shirt abandoned a little further away. He was a mess, but he tended to be a little nicer when he was a little drunk.

“Whaddya want, Vanya?” Klaus slurred. She didn’t know he noticed her. He sat up on his gangly forearms.

“I- uh...” She swallowed and found her words “Can I talk to you?”

Klaus frowned at her but nodded. Vanya came in, closing the door behind her and sat gingerly in the chair at his desk. Klaus pulled a half-empty bottle of cheap gin from under his bed “Want some?”

She shook her head and he shrugged, taking a drink like it was water “Stuff gives you a fucking wicked hangover.”

“Why do you drink it, then?” She asked

“Why not?” He said “What do you want?”

“I...” she felt her eyes well up a little but shoved it down “I was wondering if you’d heard anything from Five?” It had been three months since he had disappeared. Vanya waited for him every night, hoping, wishing that he would flash back into her room and ramble on about physics or whatever else he was thinking about that day.

Klaus sat up properly and blinked “Nope. No phone calls, no letters, nothing. Same as everyone.” He said “Not that he’d write to me of all people”

“I don’t mean... Not like that.”

“Oh.” Klaus said “You mean...”

“Yeah.” Vanya said, tugging at her shirt sleeve “I just... I just want to know.”

Klaus shifted awkwardly and shook his head “He hasn’t picked up the ghost phone.” 

“Oh.” 

“I tried.” Klaus slurred. He looked the most genuine he had been in a long time “I really did, I even tried the ouija board. Nothing.” 

“So he’s alive, then.” Vanya said

“I don’t know.” Klaus sighed, honestly “This thing- I don’t really know how it works all the time. Sometimes I can call specific people up easy as cake, sometimes, sometimes-most of the time-they find me... Sometimes they don’t want to be found.”

Vanya nodded and felt like crying again “Right.” 

“I’m sorry, Vanya.” Klaus said 

“No, it’s... it’s okay. I’m glad he’s alive.” 

“I think I’m more pissed at him for that.” Klaus said “Just up and leaving, not telling any of us where he went.”

“He’ll come back. I know he will.” Vanya said

“I doubt it.” Klaus said, taking another swig of gin

“He’ll come back.” Vanya said it more forcefully this time.

Klaus raised an eyebrow “Would you?” He said after a moment 

Vanya opened her mouth and then shut it again. She couldn’t answer. She was upset about Five’s disappearance, and though she didn’t want to admit it, she was angry at him as well. Angry that he didn’t say goodbye, but mostly angry that he didn’t take her with him. Klaus was back to being slumped on the floor, bottle in hand and staring at the ceiling she was sure was spinning for him. She stood to leave and as her hand touched the doorknob, Klaus called out

“Vanya.” 

“Yeah?” She said

“I’ll keep trying.” 

———————————————————

When Five suddenly returns before rushing off again, Vanya and Klaus are left alone for the first time in over 12 years. Klaus was smoking a cigarette and using one of their father’s priceless crystal bowls as an ashtray while slumped in one of the couches in the living room. Vanya sits, stunned at what had just happened. She felt like she had whiplash from everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. Their father dying, being back in this god-forsaken house, and now Five suddenly reappearing. And now she was just sitting in the living room with her estranged brother while he ruined family heirlooms. She felt like she might faint.

She heard Klaus laughing suddenly from across the room. She looked up and looked at him, puzzled.

“I was wrong.” He said, turning to look at her

“What?”

“I was wrong. It doesn’t happen often, I’m just as surprised as you are.” Klaus said

“What are you talking about, Klaus?” She asked

“You said he would come back.” Klaus said “And I was sure he was just off in fucking Canada or something, becoming a stuffy professor or a hermit.”

“Yeah, I... I guess so.” She said. He laughed again and stood up

“Well then, that was a nice reunion, we’ll have to do it again sometime.” He clapped her on the shoulder before sauntering away, leaving her still stunned and staring at the dead deer on the mantle.


End file.
